Welcome

Welcome to the latest edition of the zone. It’s late and I’m tired so like you know, not going to put too much here, we have lots of quality stuff though its all in the other articles so go off read those ones.

The A-League Season 51 Review

The A League Season 51 – Written by Scruttino

	Team	M	W	D	L	+	–	=	P	Last 6
1	Otago United	22	16	1	5	72	24	48	49
2	Dribblers FC	22	13	7	2	68	25	43	46
3	City Water Motel	22	12	7	3	76	28	48	43
4	Almighty Scallywags	22	12	6	4	73	20	53	42
5	Hawthorn FC	22	12	4	6	58	26	32	40
6	Númenóreans FC	22	11	3	8	56	32	24	36
7	Cheltenham	22	9	6	7	69	32	37	33
8	Glasston	22	8	5	9	58	38	20	29
9	Blazing Star	22	9	2	11	56	38	18	29
10	BONDI ICEBERGS	22	6	3	13	48	35	13	21
11	Arrested Developers	22	2	0	20	19	122	-103	6
12	Crystal Phallus FC	22	0	0	22	1	234	-233	0

 

The tables turned in the second half of the season. When Awage came back into the Dribblers lineup and Doroftei was sold. It began to go downhill, despite Awage scoring regularly. So congratulation go out to Otago United (formerly known as a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… hehe) for securing their and New Zealand’s first ever A-League trophy, with a barnstorming late run.

It was tight for third, with 3 newcomers making an immediate impact. Although the Scallywags came for the depths, City Water took the honours and Hawthorn couldn’t match their AFL counterparts settling for 5^th.

Early challenges by Numenoreans and Blazing Star faded away. For the Stars it really went south ending up in the regulation playoffs. Cheltenham just held steady, with Glasston joining the Star as the second team in the playoffs.

While the bottom 2 were guaranteed of demotion before played ever began. Arrested Developers bought well and gave the wooden spoon, BDSM style to the Crystal Phallus. Climate change and the rapid disappearance of polar ice cap, meant the winter Icebergs drifting past Bondi were too slippery for training customary training practise. Perhaps next winter will be better.

PS – It might still be early, but the Glasston Bottles long run in the A-League may have come to an end. As a first up loss in their opening round playoff games could spell the end for consistent effort.

Round Commentary

Round 12 – 24-08-2014 16:45

City Water Motel	2-2	Númenóreans FC
Cheltenham	2-2	Dribblers FC
Hawthorn FC	3-1	Blazing Star
Crystal Phallus FC	0-6	Arrested Developers
Almighty Scallywags	3-0	Glasston
Otago United	1-0	BONDI ICEBERGS

 

damo11
0-6 again. I’ll take that as a win.

bestplaymaker2134
thats more like it

safieeamat
Great result stealing a point from CWM after last Wednesday defeat.

tosspot
6-0 win, I’ll take that as a win.

tosspot
Tamariz Heiremans has 8 goals from 19 shots on target in 3 games. Managerial genius? I think so.

Round 13 – 27-08-2014 10:00

City Water Motel	1-1	Dribblers FC
Númenóreans FC	1-0	Blazing Star
Hawthorn FC	2-1	Cheltenham
Crystal Phallus FC	0-16	Glasston
Arrested Developers	0-7	BONDI ICEBERGS
Otago United	1-2	Almighty Scallywags

safieeamat
Hope we can use our Home advantage and steal three points from The Blazing Stars.

eric_the_eel
great chance to go top but beaten convincingly by the Scallywags!

Round 14 – 31-08-2014 09:15

Blazing Star	1-3	City Water Motel
Cheltenham	3-1	Númenóreans FC
Dribblers FC	2-2	Hawthorn FC
BONDI ICEBERGS	13-0	Crystal Phallus FC
Almighty Scallywags	8-0	Arrested Developers
Glasston	1-1	Otago United

eric_the_eel
ANOTHER draw for Dribblers and i can’t capitalise…

safieeamat
lost to a better team the same scoring chances but we just can’t score.

bestplaymaker2134
tosser got wrecked

Round 15 – 03-09-2014 10:30

Blazing Star	1-3	Dribblers FC
City Water Motel	0-0	Cheltenham
Númenóreans FC	0-2	Hawthorn FC
BONDI ICEBERGS	1-1	Glasston
Crystal Phallus FC	0-12	Almighty Scallywags
Arrested Developers	0-4	Otago United

safieeamat
Another tough match against Hawthorn this time.

safieeamat
Once again the game was there to take alas our forwards left their scoring boots in the dressing room..

Round 16 – 07-09-2014 12:15

Dribblers FC	0-7	Númenóreans FC
Cheltenham	4-1	Blazing Star
Hawthorn FC	1-4	City Water Motel
Glasston	4-0	Arrested Developers
Almighty Scallywags	2-1	BONDI ICEBERGS
Otago United	11-0	Crystal Phallus FC

safieeamat
The players are in cloud nine after miraculously irking out a great win against The Dribblers.

maccorosso
good work dude

eric_the_eel
wtf happened there! I’m first!

bestplaymaker2134
probably not for long

Round 17 – 10-09-2014 14:15

City Water Motel	0-2	Glasston
Dribblers FC	4-0	Arrested Developers
Númenóreans FC	0-5	Almighty Scallywags
Cheltenham	1-3	BONDI ICEBERGS
Blazing Star	0-2	Otago United
Hawthorn FC	9-0	Crystal Phallus FC

bestplaymaker2134
shit just got real

eric_the_eel
still top!

safieeamat
My players must be still spent from the last League win..

eric_the_eel
almighty scallywags on an amazing winning streak 🙂

bestplaymaker2134
Its still anyones game, even hawthorn can win. I must pray to the sim god.

maccorosso
easy

Round 18 – 14-09-2014 14:45

BONDI ICEBERGS	0-1	Númenóreans FC
Otago United	4-1	Cheltenham
Crystal Phallus FC	0-17	Blazing Star
Glasston	3-4	Hawthorn FC
Arrested Developers	0-9	City Water Motel
Almighty Scallywags	0-0	Dribblers FC

bestplaymaker2134
was happy to get a draw but then realised i had twice as many shots. i confessed my sims why wont the sim god love me

safieeamat
Just sneaked in there, scoring the winning goal in the 72′ minute. Statistically I was Bondi had 3 times more scoring chances, talk about parking the bus. lol

eric_the_eel
4 games to go hold on… have to play 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th place however…

troyh65
Simmed lol No wonder I am losing hair.

Round 19 – 17-09-2014 17:15

Cheltenham	15-0	Crystal Phallus FC
Blazing Star	4-0	Glasston
Hawthorn FC	6-1	Arrested Developers
City Water Motel	0-5	Almighty Scallywags
Dribblers FC	3-0	BONDI ICEBERGS
Númenóreans FC	0-4	Otago United

eric_the_eel
last time I played Númenóreans FC I thumped them, however each week I am getting more and more nervous… would love to get another win before I play Dribblers next round but too intense to watch!

bestplaymaker2134
:DD thats for taking my div 1 title.

troyh65
This game really is pants.

safieeamat
damn it I thought told my Seniors they are playing Otago not my bloody U18s. lol

Round 20 – 21-09-2014 17:30

Otago United	3-2	Dribblers FC
BONDI ICEBERGS	0-1	City Water Motel
Almighty Scallywags	1-0	Hawthorn FC
Arrested Developers	2-5	Blazing Star
Glasston	3-0	Cheltenham
Crystal Phallus FC	0-6	Númenóreans FC

eric_the_eel
eeeeeee massive game…

bestplaymaker2134
damn

safieeamat
Yes three more points. Looks like a middle of the table finish for me, very mediocre season to what my aim was.

eric_the_eel
I won! but still not safe.. dribblers have a smashing coming up and I have to play City Water so it could still be close by the last round…

Round 21 – 24-09-2014 16:30

Dribblers FC	10-0	Crystal Phallus FC
Númenóreans FC	1-1	Glasston
Cheltenham	4-1	Arrested Developers
Blazing Star	0-2	Almighty Scallywags
Hawthorn FC	4-2	BONDI ICEBERGS
City Water Motel	2-1	Otago United

eric_the_eel
1 more point…

bestplaymaker2134
any of the top 4 couldve taken the title. I hope the dribblers lose so I’ll come second…i mean so you would win….

safieeamat
Share the point with Glasston.

eric_the_eel
Its not over yet!

Round 22 – 28-09-2014 10:45

Crystal Phallus FC	0-7	City Water Motel
Glasston	2-3	Dribblers FC
Arrested Developers	1-5	Númenóreans FC
Almighty Scallywags	2-2	Cheltenham
BONDI ICEBERGS	0-1	Blazing Star
Otago United	2-0	Hawthorn FC

 

orchy
last game of the season, I hope I will win against Otago 🙂

bestplaymaker2134
No minne no win

safieeamat
placed sixth on the ladder, okay. Aim was higher.

Extras

Congrats on your first A-League title eric!

bestplaymaker2134
It’ll be mine next season.

safieeamat
Congrats to eric and good luck to Bondi, AD and CP in the play-off. Season 52 here we come.

tosspot
You named the 3 teams that aren’t in playoffs…

bestplaymaker2134
babahhahaha someone forgot to dunk pills this morning hahaaaah

damo11
That was a largely successful season from me. Well done eric!

safieeamat
Yeah I keep messing it up, keep forgetting 8th & 9th is the play-off and 10th,11th & 12th are relegated. Might be an omen that you three be back in the A-League by S53. Good luck to Glasston and Blazing Star in the play-off.
Should’ve gone to bed after a big night….lol

eric_the_eel
woo! cheers guys

Selling Up

Blazing Star

What was left of my Club Membership that I had built up as an RA just expired, and my interest for the game is at an all-time low. I thought my team looked good early on this season, but that long streak of losses mid-season makes it likely that I’m going to relegate. If I do, I will be selling up a grand total of 10 players from my senior team, keeping only the players who are 25 years of age or younger.

I will be keeping my account active just in case the MZ bug does bite me again, and that’s also why I’m going to keep the younger players on my squad because I’ll have players to build a team around. But I wanted to let everyone know that for a season or two at least I’ll be mostly inactive.

PS: The national coach may want to keep an eye on Phillip Nobes (182802430) and add him to the U21 NT when he picks up his 10th ball in keeping…

overthetop3
2nd PS: I will still be accepting friendly matches if sent, and still plan on logging in for a few minutes a day to maintain my team and not let it fall into disarray, but that’s about it…

damo11
I’m pretty close to that point too. Not sure how much time CM I have left. And given most of my youth keep maxing on 6 speed, it’s pretty shit

scruttino
Well, it looks like I’ll be promoted. But I’ll let 5 seniors retire, leaving me with only 1 pretty average players over the age of 30. I’m considering selling up as well. But I’ll remain active and rebuild my team around my players below the age of 23.

So I’ll most likely win the spoon next season

Dribblers FC

bestplaymaker2134
OTT and jock is gone…that cuts half the aussie mz population.

cannyjock
Yep, i’m off, finally shaken free of the MZ curse. All players on sale for a $1.

scruttino
With 2 teams selling up and only 2.5 million in the bank. I won’t be able to afford any players beyond perhaps one 19/20 year old strikers, but i’ll wait to see how high the price goes before making a move.

Also, my chances of staying up next season have improved dramatically. So I’ve spent a million on extending the 3 contracts that I could and it’s steady as she goes for the moment. Let’s see what the state of play is at the end of next season.

Competitions

The Rowden Medal

Name	Team	Points
George Nica	City Water Motel	29
Boyde Minne	Almighty Scallywags	27
Isidoro Barea	Otago United	25
Chen Xi Quan	Hawthorn FC	24
Eusebiu Doroftei	Dribblers FC	22
Kazimierz Cisek	Glasston	20
Santos Cordarrell	Bondi Icebergs	18
Sedat Turkoglu	Bondi Icebergs	17
Preston Haeberle	Hawthorn FC	17
Boyde Whelpton	City Water Motel	17

 

A new winner and a sign of the times as more established teams sell up, allowing those below to progress higher than they otherwise might have previously. George Nica, an A-league rookie, in a first season A-League team also wins the MVP award. A rarity in any sporting code with a seasonal promotion/demotion system and is unlikely to happen again for quite some time.

Doroftei would have been a shoe in, but he was sold at the mid-way point, still 5^th place for 11 games means an average of 2.2 points per game, Nica averaged 1.38 over the full 22 game season, still very good, but it was a season of what could have been for The Dribblers, now they leave us to rebuild.

Bundy’s Boot

	Player	Team	GP	G	YC	RC
1	George Nica	City	22	47	0	0
2	Boyde Minne	AS	21	47	3	0
3	Chen Xi Quan	Hawk	20	38	0	0
4	Isidoro Barea	OTA	22	37	3	0
5	Kazimierz Cisek	GLN	22	34	0	0
6	Santos Cordarrell	21	33	2	0
7	Sabastian Norman	Chm	22	28	1	0
8	Carman Awage	DFC	22	28	0	0
9	Daniel Rutledge	Chm	22	26	0	0
10	Eusebiu Doroftei	11	26	0	0
11	Agustin Ferdinand	Blaz	22	25	2	0
12	Tomás da Cunha	xXx	22	24	0	0
13	Nathan Pike	xXx	22	20	1	0
14	Keefe Tongs	OTA	22	19	1	0
15	Bran Marcola	AS	21	19	3	0
16	Benney Lamb	GLN	22	15	1	0
17	Gil Alvarenga	21	12	1	0
18	Damian Batterham	Blaz	22	11	0	0
19	Alberto Baxter	City	22	11	1	0
20	Ernest Christian	OTA	22	11	0	0

 

Minne and Nica tie, but Nica does the Rowden Medal/Bundy’s Boot double, as did Rizzardo the season past. Minne stormed home as his team settled into their game plan in the second half of the season.

A Cuddly Sheet

Goalkeepers (Goals Against)	Clubs	Clean Sheets
Bleyd Renney – (24)	Otago United	12
Bjorn Coleman – (25)	Dribblers FC	11
Artie Lowes – (20)	Almighty Scallywags	10
Nick Hanlen – (32)	Numenoreans FC	9
Jared Borserio – (38)	Blazing Star	8
Nelson Willis – (26)	Hawthorn FC	7
Randle Maciver – (32)	Cheltenham	6
Dale Barling – (38)	Glasston	6
Adolfo Telfer – (28)	City Water Motel	5
Richie Daroca – (35)	Bondi Icebergs	4
Alekos Petaloudas – (122)	Arrested Developers	2

 

It’s seems quite fitting that the keeper with the most clean sheets, comes from the A-league champions. As winning the title involves being able to stop goals, not just score them.

The Waterland

Team	Total Points
Dribblers FC	91
City Water Motel	91
Almighty Scallywags	87
Otago United	85
Hawthorn FC	83
Glasston	76
Cheltenham	75
Numenoreans FC	61
Bondi Icebergs	61
Blazing Star	58
Arrested Developers	14
Crystal Phallus FC	4

 

Lots of interesting battles played out this season, and here City Water Motel and The Dribblers share the Waterland as its first joint winners.

Club MVP’s

Arrested Developers	Player Points
Tamarlz Hieremans	7
Subin Late	2
Crawford Whitsitt	2
Kirk Hilton	1
Earle Surman	1
Arty Hauschildt	1
	14

 

Almighty Scallywags	Player Points
Boyde Minne	27
Iwan Sobania	13
Earnest Tebby	10
Dello Pernambucano	9
Bran Marcola	9
Patric Linqvist	7
Nathan Kidman	4
Henry Brask	3
Kirk Dale	3
Artie Lowes	1
Dacosta Tupman	1
	87

 

Blazing Star	Player Points
Agustin Ferdinand	12
Tommie Wellens	11
Jared Borserio	8
Joseph Stenholm	7
Brye Coldicutt	5
Ben Digiuseppe	5
Damian Batterham	3
Danny Brandie	3
Brennan Salcedo	2
Gabino Barroso	2
Darley Howard	1
	58

 

Bondi Icebergs	Player Points
Santos Cordarrell	18
Sedat Turkoglu	17
Ryan Picini	8
Umit Erel	6
Dylan Grimes	4
Gil Alvarenga	3
Neil Bonham	2
Sam Playford	2
Richie Daroca	1
	61

 

Cheltenham	Player Points
Daniel Rutledge	13
Matthews Stevens	12
Sabastian Norman	12
Dan Coburn	11
Benny Mewburn	10
No. 8 Byrne James	6
No. 6 Bennett James	4
Barth Fasey	2
Cliff Stebbing	2
Randle Maciver	2
Larry Schonke	1
	75

 

City Water Motel	Player Points
George Nica	29
Boyde Whelpton	17
Antoni Milan	10
Honorato Oliviero	7
Cevat  Direm	6
Emilio Miranda	5
Barnabas Edwards	5
Justin Hilton	4
Donovan Ashby	4
Adolfo Telfer	2
Alberto Baxter	2
	91

 

Crystal Phallus FC	Player Points
Best Bundy	2
Fabian Palmington	1
Cain Heathwood	1
	4

 

Dribblers FC	Player Points
Eusebiu Doroftei	22
Carman Awage	14
Dustin Martin	11
Sebastian Barling	9
Hugo Souza	7
Marco Tilk	6
Eliot Didlock	6
Jeremy Alves	3
Eliot Gruer	3
Luiz Ramalho	3
Adolfo Araujo	3
Bjorn Coleman	3
John Bennet	1
	91

 

Glasston	Player Points
Kazimierz Cisek	20
Keith Callaghan	10
Neale Christini	9
Ray Hines	7
Benney Lamb	6
Dale Barling	6
Roch Duda	5
Nuraip Adiyaman	5
Dede Dos Santos	5
Sylwester Naujasodis	4
Dale Gilding	2
	76

 

Hawthorn FC	Player Points
Chen Xi Quan	24
Preston Haeberle	17
Tamas Abraham	10
Alexander Paynter	9
Lowrey Holdsworth	9
Nelson Willis	9
Alim Oymen	3
Crawford Pears	1
Connor Monck	1
	83

 

Numenoreans FC	Player Points
Everett Erwin	13
Nathan Pike	11
Tomas Da Cunha	10
Durmuq Neval	7
Nick Hanlen	6
Dalton Slattery	4
Ian Kayrooz	4
Christopher Auger	4
Phillip Locke	1
Randle Pinkerton	1
	61

 

Otago United	Player Points
Isidoro Barea	25
Braedan Best	15
Bruno Frasquito	14
Keefe Tongs	9
Mateo Arraya	6
Adelino Valladares	5
Arthur Haslem	4
Ernest Christian	2
Bernard Feutrill	2
Kamiel De Meyer	2
Ciriaco Milian	2
Herman Cameron	1
	85

 

 Until Next Time

Well the U/21’s ended on a decidedly low point, but when you struggle to consistently score like they did. The defense will eventually break, despite working their computer generated butts off. I’m certain we could have made the last 8 of the World Cup, had we not conceded the 93^rd minute goal against Germany that doomed us into 3^rd place in the group, highlighting the problem the group had of not being able to convert shots on target, into goals on the scoreboard. But that’s that and there is nothing we can do about it now.

Season 51 – The A-League Playoffs

The Playoffs – Written by Scruttino

The top 3 from Division 1.1 gain promotion for the second straight season, with Glasston and Blazing Star now dropping down to 1.1, along with another random selection. Blazing Star will be selling up, meaning 3 demoted A-League teams are choosing to rebuild. Glasston’s intentions are yet to be known, so only 2 teams may have a chance of regaining their place next season.

Group 1.1

Team		M	W	D	L	+	–	=	P
Warringah Navigators	div1.1	3	3	0	0	15	3	12	9
The Smoking Tree	div1.3	3	2	0	1	6	3	3	6
Glasston	A-League	3	1	0	2	6	7	-1	3
Central And Lower Coast	div1.2	3	0	0	3	0	14	-14	0

 

Glasston – Warringah Na…	02-10-2014 10:00	1-5
Central And … – The Smoking …	02-10-2014 10:00	0-2
Glasston – Central And …	04-10-2014 13:00	5-0
Warringah Na… – The Smoking …	04-10-2014 13:00	3-2
The Smoking … – Glasston	06-10-2014 10:00	2-0
Central And … – Warringah Na…	06-10-2014 10:00	0-7

 

The Navs scored heavily and were only challenged by The Smoking Tree. Whose rebuild is progressing steadily and they will be joining the A-League soon enough.

Glasston drop out of the A-league for the first time in many, many seasons. Central and Lower Coast require some work yet, but the signs a promising.

Group 1.2

Team		M	W	D	L	+	–	=	P
Dunder Mifflin FC	div1.1	3	2	1	0	12	3	9	7
Blazing Star	A-League	3	2	1	0	7	1	6	7
Crimson Eagles FC	div1.3	3	1	0	2	4	7	-3	3
Brisbane Roar	div1.2	3	0	0	3	2	14	-12	0

 

Dunder Miffl… – Blazing Star	02-10-2014 13:00	1-1
Crimson Eagl… – Brisbane Roar	02-10-2014 13:00	3-1
Brisbane Roar – Blazing Star	04-10-2014 10:00	0-3
Crimson Eagl… – Dunder Miffl…	04-10-2014 10:00	1-3
Blazing Star – Crimson Eagl…	06-10-2014 13:00	3-0
Dunder Miffl… – Brisbane Roar	06-10-2014 13:00	8-1

 

It came down to goal difference, but a big win in the final game propels Dunder Mifflin FC into the A-League. Blazing Star fell badly in the second half of the season and deserved to be demoted on the stats they put up against Dunder Mifflin FC.

Crimson Eagles are not far away. While the Brisbane Roar fail for the second successive season in the playoffs, without really offering a whimper.

Season 52 Preview

Season 52 Preview – Written by Scruttino

	Team	M	W	D	L	+	–	=	P	Last 6
1	Almighty Scallywags	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	Calabria F.C	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Cheltenham	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	City Water Motel	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	Dribblers FC	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
6	Dunder Mifflin FC	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
7	Hawthorn FC	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
8	Jokers	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
9	Númenóreans FC	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
10	Otago United	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
11	SYDclub	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
12	Warringah Navigators	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

 

The A-League without Glasston and Arrested Developers, looks very strange. Dribblers are guaranteed the spoon, but will rake in the cash with a low wage bill and high earning the whole season.

As to who will actually win, this is a great unknown. Otago are favourites due to being the title holders, but teams are more even than ever. 1 or 2 teams will get directly relegated and can feel pretty sore for being so.

Last seasons Seniors National Cup finalists SYD Club and Jokers were both in Division 1 and have been subsequently promoted into the A-league. Division 1.1 again promote 3 sides in Warringah Navigators, Dunder Mifflin FC and the Jokers, suggesting they will all be strong. But don’t count out Calabria F.C either.

Upper and mid table survivors Cheltenham, Numenoreans FC, Hawthorn FC, Almighty Scallywags and City Water Motel will be under serious pressure to hold their place as this season will be much more competitive than the last.

 

National Team Review – U21s

National Team Review – U21s

by National Coach eric_the_eel

There are a number of ways I could summarise my first season in charge of the National team. Satisfying yet frustrating, close but no cigar, happy to have done us proud, gutted to have missed out, or anything else you can think of that describes missing out on the round of 16 at the U21 World Cup by a solitary goal. Here’s a summary of the season and how we went.

Firstly a warm thank you to everyone that voted for me as National Coach. It is an honour to have your support and belief in me and I hope that results and communication on the forums have gone some way towards satisfying your Managerzone cravings. As soon as I was voted in as head coach I appointed bestplaymaker213 and scruttino as my assistants. We have been working hard on selection and tactics for 85 days (and counting) and are all enjoying the challenge.

Our first challenge was picking an U21 squad, setting a whole lot of friendlies, and preparing the team for the U21 World Cup Qualification tournament. We completed 15 friendlies preparing for the tournament with 7 wins, 2 draws, and 6 losses, including good performances against Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic and China.

We entered the U21 World Cup Qualification Tournament with the task of finishing in the top 2 and qualifying for the World Cup, something Australia hasn’t managed since 4 seasons ago. A tough draw handed us Ecuador, Brazil, and England. With a wing tactic and short passing tactic fully tested and prepared, we had a gutsy win against Ecuador, a solid loss to Brazil, and a dominant draw against England, providing us with the following table:

Success, and a guaranteed place in the U21 World Cup! This gave us a few weeks off to prepare further before the world cup began, and we played 13 further friendlies trying to get the squad ready, winning 6, drawing 3, and losing 4, including beating Brazil, Portugal and Greece. However we were dealt a blow to our hopes of getting out of the group stage when we were put with Finland, Italy and Germany in Group 2.

What can you say? Dominated the first game and won 1-0, dominated the second game and drew 2-2, played an even third game and lost 1-4. A great defence was let down by a lack of depth in our strikers. The final table?

To be honest we were all pretty gutted that we hadn’t made it through the group, after some great performances from the team we really thought we had a good chance to make the knockout rounds, something the Australian U21 team has only done once before. However it wasn’t to be, and now we begin working towards the Senior Team for Season 52. Thanks to scruttino and bestplaymaker2134 for their hard work so far and we look forward to continued success next season!

Australia U21 Squad Results Summary for Season 51:

Played 34, Won 15, Drew 7, Lost 12, Scored 63, Conceded 66

Australia U21 Squad for Season 51:

The heat-map and the game-graph

Written by Dagriggstar

Introduction
So during the Managerzone U21 football world cup we had a group stage game between Australia and Italy. Most of the feedback in the Australian comments thread was that they felt a little unlucky, but sometimes these results happen. On the Italian side I assume they said some things in Italian that I don’t understand. If you look at the “regular” stats for the game, you’ll probably notice that Australia had 18 shots while the Italians only managed 10 and disregard most of the other stats. What makes shots a better measure than say team passing % or possession I believe is that shots indicate at minimum that you had the ball down your end of the field in shooting range. The shot stat is prone to being skewed however from double or even triple saves from an individual attack. This gave me the initial idea for a “Heat Map”.

What is a heat map ?
A heat map basically measures how much time the ball spent in different parts of the pitch during a game. I divided the pitch into 15 cells, then calculated how much time the ball spent in each cell as a percentage of the relevant time period (So first half, whole game etc). The cells are then coloured based on how long the ball spent in each cell, higher percentages being indicated by the colour red and lower percentages by the colour green. This gives you a visual idea for where the ball was during the relevant time period. Theoretically, the more time a team spends in attack the more likely they are to score.

How is this data gathered ?
I should mention here that as I am not a robot, there is likely be some errors. But lets start with a picture.

Firstly I’ve used a program called sketch it to draw over the top of the game. Then I’ve played the game on the slowest speed setting the whole way through, while recording when the ball enters and leaves each cell. I’ve excluded time from play stoppages (Goal kicks, subs etc) so the data would not be skewed by this (Including goal kicks would’ve meant much higher values in both attacking areas for example).

So can we see what one looks like ?

So here is the first heatmap. It actually (in my opinion) suggests that the game was indeed pretty even, the majority of the game being played in the central parts of the pitch. However it is also clear that the Australians were much better at getting the ball deep into their attack, with the ball spending ~10% of the game there compared with ~3% for the Italians. At this point it should be pointed out that the Australians used wing play for this game, while the Italians used a short passing tactic. As you may already have picked up on from just watching games, wing play is actually the more direct tactic, ie you can get the ball deeper, faster. Hopefully one day when long balls manages to differentiate itself from short passing we will have a direct way of attacking down the middle of the pitch. But anyway, onto some more heat-maps.

So earlier I mentioned that we can look at heat maps over time and this one is from the first half of the game. At this stage, both teams lined up playing down the top side wing, as a result the ball spends just 1.58% of the time anywhere on the bottom side wing. The main difference to the full game heat map is that the Italians are clearly getting the ball into attack but cannot get past the Australian defensive midfielders. The Australians largely bypass this problem by attacking down the wing.

59 minutes into the game and the Australians have now made all of their subs. They also switch the wing they are attacking down, so now they attack down the bottom side with wing play as opposed to the Italians attacking top side with short passing. The results…

…Are impressive from an Australian point of view. Whether the subs resulted in the improved performance or it was the wing switch, the tactical genius of Australia NC eric_the_eel resulted in the Italians spending much less (Just shy of 10%) time forward. On the flip side the Italians waited until the 87th minute to make their subs, who combined to touch the ball on a total of two occasions. As a result of the switch, the Italians are forced to attempt to attack through the middle of the pitch, rather than going through either top-side or middle. This narrows their attacking corridor, making it easier for the Australians to defend and helps explain why they managed to keep the ball in their attacking areas more during this part of the game. Despite all this attacking, it took until the 89th minute for the Australians to score an equalising goal, ending the game 2-2.

Hold on, despite all of this attacking the game finished 2-2 ? Shouldn’t Australia, having had almost twice as many shots and twice as much ball inside the 18 yard box have won ? Well probably, but before drawing anymore conclusions I thought I’d look at something else I could do with this data…

Introducing the “Game Graph”

Now just what are you looking at ? Well this graph looks at how much time in the last 10 minutes a team has spent in different parts of the pitch (Deep attack refers to within 18 yards of the goal-line, attack includes attacking midfield). On the x axis we have a few “events”, AUS/ITA indicates a goal to that team, the first two subs are Australian substitutions (One was a double) while the final sub was an Italian triple sub. This graph actually suggests that the Italians were on top early (About the first 20 minutes we see the blue Italian attack line above the green Australian attack line), before a period where the game was pretty even before the Australians eventually became the better team as the game went on. It also suggests that in the ~15 minutes before the first Australian subs were made, the Italians were in-fact running out of stamina.

Conclusion
Well I guess I agree with the general consensus in the Australian community, that the result wasn’t really indicative of the match. I’d also say that eric_the_eel (the Australian NC) out-managed his Italian counterpart scaramozzino. If you look at the result in the context of the group, well it put Australia in the box seat to grab second spot but a 93rd minute goal meant they lost out on goals scored for to the Italians. This may also suggest that the key behind the effectiveness of wing play is that it is easier to get the ball deeper into your attack, allowing your defence to set up a midfield wall, rather than wing play being easier to score with itself. That isn’t a debate that should be developed over the course of an individual game and I’m sure many have their own opinions on it.

Anyway, if I find some more time I’ll probably run another of these for the U21 world cup final, it hasn’t been played yet as I type this out so is still in the extremely maybe category.
/dagriggstar

The New Retirement System

Written by grosssieb

 

Most of you probably already forgot that we have got a new retirement system since last season. At first the expectations were really high, however many were shocked that they got a lot more retirees and even retirees which were only 30. So what happened?

Introducing the new retirement system the crew announced that
”Average retirement ages will be lowered from their current levels.”
In addition with the optional extension of their career the retirement system has changed a lot. Many managers were caught off guard. As next season break is just around the corner let’s recap the new rules.
At the beginning of the new season all players of age 30 or older can retire and announce it if they want so. For such a player you have three options:
1. Sell him on the transfer market. This is now possible until day 21 of the new season.
2. Keep him and let him retire at the end of the season.
3. Extend his career by one season. This cost you 120% of the player’s season salary for the first extension. A player can extend his career by 1-3 seasons.

It is good to know the rules. In order to make the right decision it is better to know the probability that players announce their retirement. Unfortunately crew will not share the exact numbers with us. After one season with the new system the data set is limited. The following rates are based on the retirements of the top league and division 1 of Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The old rates should be more accurate as their underlying data is bigger.

Age Number Retirees Rate Rate (old)
30 80 8 10.00% –
31 68 17 25.00% 9.78%
32 59 22 37.29% 16.88%
33 49 36 73.47% 25.42%
34 37 30 81.08% 42.06%
35 23 18 78.26% 46.96%
36 13 12 92.31% 23.21%
37 5 5 100.00% 100.00%
Overall 314 148 47.13% 23.37%

We see immediately that the rates have increased drastically. One out of ten 30 year old players announces his retirement. At the age of 32 it has increased to almost 4 out of 10. For a 33 year old player the chance that he retires is much higher than that he keeps playing. So if you consider buying a 32 year old player you should expect him to announce his retirement next season. You can extend his career of course but this will cost you 150000 € up to 250000 €. Hence if a younger player is available you should buy him even if he is more expensive. The cost of career extension increases. For two extra seasons the fees vary from 350000 € up to 650000 €. So you can choose between paying for two extra seasons or investing more money in a younger player.

Having seen the different rates of retirement it is possible to calculate the average age of retirement announcement. Based on the data collected when the old system was active the former average age of retirement announcement was 33.84 years. Based on the new data from this season the average age decreased to 32.14 years. This means that on average a player wants to retire almost two seasons earlier!

The following chart shows in detail the difference between the old and the new system. Starting with 100 players with the same age-group, i.e. all are born in the same season, when do they announce their retirement.

In the old system retirement announcements started at the age of 31, where 10 out of 100 players wanted to retire. The number peaked at the age of 34 when another 23 announced their retirement. So from the 100 players about one third, i.e. 32 players, had not announced their retirement by the age of 34.
In the new system retirement announcements start at the age of 30, where also about 10 out of 100 players want to retire. This number increases up to 31 players (from the starting 100) announcing their retirement at the age of 33. Adding the numbers up, we see that almost 90% of all players, which are born in the same season, announce their retirement not later than at the age of 33! Less than 4 out of 10000 players stay at your club until they are 38 years old without having to extend their career.
For example if you have 10 youths of the same age. You keep all of them until they are seniors. Only one out of these 10 youths will wait until he is 34 years old when he announces his retirement. In other words 9 out of 10 players want to retire between the age of 30 and 33!

So far we analysed only the announcement of retirement. The career extension was ignored. First of all no data exists about how long players extend their career. Even if this data exists it is hard, if not impossible to collect. We know that all players extend their career at least by one season and at most by 3 seasons. Let’s assume that crew only wanted to decrease the average age of retirement announcement, i.e. the average retirement age including extensions is the same in the old and the new system. Without extension the average age of retirement is
34.84 years in the old system
33.14 years in the new system (without extension).
Hence in average players have to extend their career by 1.7 seasons. If this is the case, then 50 % of the players will extend their career only by one season, 30% by two and 20% by three seasons. These numbers look quite reasonable. However deteriorations and the costs of extensions will force managers to let their players go into retirement before they reach their maximum retirement age. Hence we can expect that more than 50% of all players are willing to extend their career by more than one season.

National Cup season 51

National Cup – Knockout Stage review

Written by dagriggstar

Round of 16

So the most boring games first, Jokers dominated Central and Lower Coast with 35 to 7 scoring chances but only a 3-1 win. Skoolage United held out for 51 minutes against Numenoreans, only conceding 1 goal, but a red card to a key defender completely opened the floodgates and Numenoreans ended up with a 5-0 win. SYDClub had a less comfortable 3-1 win against Calabria, Ricardo Cugat completing his hat-trick in the 93rd minute. Dribblers and Otago United each had 16 scoring chances but Dribblers managed 2 goals whereas Otago United managed 0. Happy Little Vegemites gave Bondi Icebergs an almighty scare, coming from 4-1 down to get back to 4-3 with 6 minutes left, but failed to find a final equalizing goal amid a frantic finish. Cheltenham did pull off a simming against Hawthorn FC, winning 3-2 despite a 7-15 scoring chance differential. A late 86th minute  goal to Agustin Ferdinand for Blazing Star secured them a 3-2 win over Ayreon in what turned out to be the second closest round win. A 117th minute red card and penalty conceded by Crimson Eagles player Brock Sewell gave Teobald Siedlecki of The Smoking Tree the chance to put his side through, a chance he finally took from the spot after two furious minutes of arguing with the referee by Sewells team-mates.

Last 16
	Jokers – Central And Lower Coast		3 – 1
	Skoolage United – Númenóreans FC		0 – 5
	Dribblers FC – Otago United		2 – 0
	The Smoking Tree – Crimson Eagles FC		2 – 1
	Ayreon – Blazing Star		2 – 3
	Calabria F.C – SYDclub		1 – 3
	BONDI ICEBERGS – Happy Little Vegemites		4 – 3
	Hawthorn FC – Cheltenham		2 – 3

Quarter Finals

Three of the four quarter finals were decided by two goal margins, Bondi Icebergs had the help of a Mathews Stevens (Side-note who has two plural names as their full name ?) double yellow that hampered Cheltenhams defence, as a result the Icebergs won 3-1. Ricardo Cugat scored another hat-trick for SYDClub as they also won 3-1, this time against Blazing Star. Cup favourites Dribblers FC scored in the second minute against The Smoking Tree, however for the second game running The Smoking Tree benefited from a red card penalty situation. Despite the numerical disadvantage for 2/3 of the game, Dribblers managed more scoring chances than their opponents, however they only converted 1 of 16 compared to 3 of 9, which meant The Smoking Tree went through. The final game saw Jokers edge Numenoreans with a 109th minute golden goal in what was a very appropriate result going by the stats.

Quarter-Final
	Númenóreans FC – Jokers		0 – 1
	Dribblers FC – The Smoking Tree		1 – 3
	Blazing Star – SYDclub		1 – 3
	Cheltenham – BONDI ICEBERGS		1 – 3

 

Semi-Finals

And so the last A-league team fell, in-fact they were totally outclassed as Ricardo Cugat this time put four goals into the back of the net to guide his team SYDClub to a 4-0 victory over Bondi Icebergs. Jokers meanwhile went 2-0 up against The Smoking Tree, before Edgar Bury scored in the 63rd minute to give them some hope. It was a case of another game another red card but this time The Smoking Tree were on the receiving end. 2-1 down and desperate to get the ball back Szcepan Liermann tackled a through on goal Bent Mcmahon inside the box. The referee gave the penalty and Oliver Ashby stepped up to put the game beyond all doubt, a 3-1 victory for Jokers, except that he missed. From the goal kick Aureo found Bailey in midfield, who passed to Siedlecki on the wing. He raced down the right wing, his cross found Bury ! The shot is …. deflected out for a corner. Deep into stoppage time now, surely the last chance for 10-man The Smoking Tree for extra time, Siedlecki’s corner is saved. Duncans goalkick barely makes it into midfield, it’s intercepted by Guerrieri,  crossed in, cleared sort of, the ball bounces around inside the box, Bury scores ! The Smoking Tree equalize with the last kick of regulation.  The super-human effort takes it toll however, they went on to lose in extra time, final score Jokers 3 – 2 The Smoking Tree.

Semi-Final
	Jokers – The Smoking Tree		3 – 2
	SYDclub – BONDI ICEBERGS		4 – 0

 

Final Round

3rd place was won by The Smoking Tree 2-1 in a pretty even game. The final involved none of the drama of the semi’s the final result 3-0 to SYDClub with Ricardo Cugat scoring another hat-trick, also giving him the distinction of scoring a hat-trick in every knockout phase game. In fact, all but three goals scored by SYDClub in their campaign were scored by Cugat, a truly remarkable performance from the striker. It was only good enough for 3rd place in the top goalscorers with a total of 32, as Edwardo Rowdon of Skoolage United finished the highest Aussie with 37 and Chen Xi Quan of Hawthorn FC first with 44.

Underage National Cups

Written by Dagriggstar

Here is a table that summarizes all the placings of teams in the underage national cup competitions

 

Team	U18	U21	U23	Average	Rank
Glasston	4			4	6
Hawthorn FC	5			5	10
Otago United	2	5		3.5	5
Crimson Eagles FC	5	1	1	2.3333333333	2
Rangers – Real Madrid	1			1	1
Jokers	5	5		5	10
Skoolage United	3	5	4	4	6
SYDClub	5	2	5	4	6
BONDI ICEBERGS		3	2	2.5	3
Warringah Navigators		4		4	6
The Smoking Tree		5		5	10
Arrested Developers			3	3	4
Dewrang Lions			5	5	10
Ayreon			5	5	10
Numenoreans FC			5	5	10

 

Shout-out to Rangers – Real Madrid for winning an official cup after just 5 months in the game. And keep that applause going as he also managed to win the U18 season 50 cup (8 days after winning this title in fact). Personally I feel that Crimson Eagles were most impressive domestically however, with Bondi Icebergs also showing quality across two age brackets.

AIHL Review

AIHL Review – Season 43

by eric_the_eel

For the 3^rd time in 4 seasons the Dunedin Thunderbirds HC have won the AIHL title in the last round of the season. In our last report, at round 11, the Warringah Wizards had beaten everyone and were sitting a comfortable 5 points clear at the top of the table. Everyone was expecting nav’s team to run away with the title, however yet again the Managerzone Gods conspired to give eric_the_eel’s team first place.

With damo11’s team Polar Bear Club selling up in the first half of the season, the big match of the second half of the season was always going to be between the two heavyweights, and it didn’t disappoint. Round 13 saw the Thunderbirds host the Wizards.

After a tense start the Thunderbirds Brazilian defender Sidnei “Nelly” Furtado opened the scoring with a powerful shot from range. His celebratory chorus of “I’m Like a Bird” is quickly becoming adopted with the Thunderbird faithful, who can’t help but join in with the pop classic. Goals in period 2 from National Team Centre Edison Devine and a second from Furtado put the Thunderbirds up 3-0 going into the final third, and things were looking good for the manager. When a fourth came in from National Team winger / vampire killer Blade Raison the game was as good as over. All the Wizards had to take home was a reply from Randall “any day of the” Weeks.

Heading into the last game of the season the top two looked like this:

	P	W	D	L	F	A	+/-	Points
Warringah Wizards	21	20	0	1	118	23	+95	60
Dunedin Thunderbirds	21	19	1	1	111	21	+90	58

The Wizards had to beat Kangaroo Crusaders – a tricky match against a team on the up (the first round match finished 2-1 to the Wizards). The Thunderbirds had to beat Duffield Space Cowboys, beat them convincingly, and hope that the Wizards didn’t win.

What can you say?

Gave us this:

	P	W	D	L	F	A	+/-	Points
Dunedin Thunderbirds	22	20	1	1	119	23	+96	61
Warringah Wizards	22	20	1	1	119	24	+95	61

Incredible.

In the individual points table Duffields player and chief composer Ludvig Vennerberg topped the chart with 31 points. I think he plays in almost every line and so is getting a lot of ice time! Top of the face-off charts yet again was Edison Devine from the Thunderbirds who won 69% of 193 face-offs, followed by Emiliano Ursini from the Wizards with 68% won from 171 face-offs.

Come join us in Ice Hockey! We currently have 26 active users, 12 in the top league, 14 in div 1 and 5 in div 2, which means quick easy money if you stay in form and train youths quickly J The Loyal Players are pretty good too and there are some in the National Team already. Despite the lack of users gafar took our National U21 team to 3^rd place in the U21 Confederations Cup in his first season in charge! What a champion!

By eric_the_eel